The 11. New Horizons International Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday, 31 July with the Polish premiere of Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live in.
During 11 festival days 483 movies (of which 228 were full-lenght) from 44 countries were shown. 240 of them had their Polish premieries in Wrocław. There were 542 screenings in total. Around 111 000 spectators participated in the festival.
157 foreign film directors, actors, producers, sales agents and distributors and 241 Polish guests have come to Wrocław, among them, the Hungarian director Béla Tarr - creator of the legendary Satan Tango. He came to present his newest film - The Turin Horse and run a masterclass for the festival audience.
The most prominent Korean film director, author of The Bow and Samaritan Girl, Kim Ki-duk also came to the festival. The 11. New Horizons IFF was honoured to welcome award-winning directors such as Bruno Dumont, Anja Breien, German experimental film author Werner Nekes, Terry Gilliam and Polish animator Mariusz Wilczyński. A short visit of Asghar Farhadi, the author of the Golden Bear-winning film Nader and Simin, A Separation surprised the audience attending the opening ceremony, where the film was screened.
The festival hosted five competitions this year- New Horizons International Competition,
Films On Art International Competition, New Polish Films Competition, Polish Short Films Competition and European Short Debuts Competition.
In the New Horizons Internatonal Competition the Jury (Anocha Suwichakornpong, Denis Côté, Hugo Vieira da Silva, Frédéric Boyer, Mariusz Grzegorzek) chose from 14 films. The festival Grand Prix and 20 000 € prize was given to Attenberg (Greece 2010) directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. Special Award. A special mention was handed to Sándor Kardos's Gravedigger (A sírásó, Hungary 2010). Brownian Movement (Netherlands / Germany / Belgium 2010) directed by Nanouk Leopold won the The International Film Guide award.
For the second time in festival's history film critics from the International Federation of Film Critics handed the prestigious FIPRESCI Award to Gravedigger by Sándor Kardos. The FIPRESCI jury included Carmen Gray, Kira Taszman and Anita Piotrowska.
The Audience Award went to the debut of Argentinian director Paula Markovitch The Prize (El premio, Mexico / France / Poland / Germany 2011).
In the Films On Art International Competition the Jury (Roe Rosen, Gaspard Kuentz, Cédric Dupire, Tomasz Budzyński, Werner Nekes) gave the 10 000 € prize to Arirang (South Korea 2011) directed by Kim Ki-duk. The Jury gave also a Special Mention to the film Pyuupiru 2001-2008 (Japan 2010) directed by Daishi Matsunagi.
Thanks to the awards, Attenberg, Arirang, Gravedigger and The Prize have guaranteed distribution in Polish cinemas by the New Horizons Association, the organizer of the festival.
In the New Polish Films Competition, the Wrocław Film Award (including 100 000 PLN, 60 000 for the producer, and 40 000 for the director) funded by the president of Wrocław, by the jury verdict was handed to the film by Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal It Looks Pretty from a Distance. The prize of the Lower Silesia Voivodeship Marshall (40 000 PLN) for the best debut was handed to Jan Komasa for Suicide Room with the verdict of an international jury (Györgi Pálfi, Martin Blaney, Dimitri Eipides).
The European Short Debuts Competition in the category of animation was won by I Am Round (Jag är rund, Sweden 2011) by Mario Adamson, the best documentary chosen by the audience was The Chief (Il Capo, Italy 2010) directed by Yuri Ancarani. The Runaway (La Huida, Spain 2009) directed by Victor Carrey recieved the most votes in the category of feature films.
In the Polish Short Films Competition winners were chosen by the audience. Shivering Trunks directed by Natalia Brożyńska was named the best animation. 3 Days Of Freedom directed by Łukasz Borowski was the best documentary, while Basia From Podlachie by Aleksander Dembski won the title of the best fiction.
The 11.New Horizons IFF held retrospectives of Terry Gilliam, Andrzej Munk, Jack Smith, Bruno Dumont, Mariusz Wilczyński, Werner Nekes. The audience had a chance to take a closer look at the Norwegian cinema and especially on the work of Anja Breien in the Norway Expanded cycle. In the Midnight Madness section the audience enjoyed 'Round Midnight cult films. For the first time Japenese pink movies were shown to the Polish audience.
Industry
The festival was full of meetings with directors, critics, artists, discussion panels and lectures. A special place was created for film professionals - 170 industry guests were present in Wrocław, among them programmers from Berlinale, Rotterdam, Cannes, Venice, Thessaloniki, Toronto, Hong-Kong, Leeds, Edinburgh and Cottbus film festivals, as well as buyers, producers and sales agents.
Key companies present at the festival were Trust Nordisk, Memento, Wide Management, LevelK, Opus Film, Maipo, TVP, Polsat, Canal+, Soda Pictures, Malavida, Second Run DVD, Best Film and Gutek Film.
For the second time Wrocław hosted the New Horizons Studio - an initiative for young film professionals, designed to explain the workings of the international film market. 22 participants from 5 countries took part in lectures by renowned speakers, such as Hayet Benkara, Richard Kwietniowski (writing and directing), Ivana MacKinnon (producing), Ri Chakraborty, Anais Clanet (Wide Management), Beata Mońka (Canal+) and Hugo Viera da Silva (Swans). Co-organizers of the workshop were Media Desk Poland and London Film Academy.
Another key industry event was the Polish-Norwegian Co-Production Forum, which saw 80 participants - producers, film funds, distributors and buyers - meeting in Wrocław and discussing 10 projects that could posssibly become Polish-Norwegian co-productions.
11. New Horizons IFF was acompanied by five Polish book publications: Behind the Pink Curtain by Jasper Sharp, Midnight Movies by J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Norwegian Cinema (ed. Jan Erik Holst, Paweł Urbanik), Terry Gilliam's Wunderkamera (ed. Kuba Mikurda) and Animated Blues of Mariusz Wilczyński (Jerzy Armata).
11. New Horizons IFF was full of music events. On the July 29, 3000 people participated in a performance of Nick Cave and his band Grinderman. Everyday, the festival club located in the City Museum at the Arsenal hosted concerts and DJ sets. The T-Mobile Music Scene has seen shows by the legendary american hip-hop group, Anti-Pop Consortium and the leaders of the Norwegian music scene - Jaga Jazzist, Susanne Sundfør and Supersilent.
During the festival the following exhibitions were shown: All the Women of the World Are in Me! - Ane Lan, Pinku eiga - Personal Art - Witold Liszkowski, Rub your Eyes. From the collection of Werner Nekes.
12. New Horizons IFF will be held from 19 till 29 July 2012. Part of the 12th edition will be a review of new Mexican cinema and a retrospective of its famous representative Carlos Reygadas. Other retrospectives include films by the Serbian director Dušan Makavejev, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl and the avant-garde author Peter Tscherkassky.
The main festival partner and sponsor was Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, operator of the polish T-Mobile network. The main patron was the City of Wrocław. Mercedes was the official car of the event.
